Keep Moving
by AkuBeku
Summary: 70 years after the Promised Day, an elderly Edward Elric prepares for his time to come. Rated T for character death.


**Try reading this while listening to Let it Out. It's not fun.**

**FMA belongs to Arakawa-sensei**

* * *

Edward woke slowly, as many old men do, his automail leg groaning loudly.

The ex-alchemist chuckled softly. His time was coming soon, he could tell. He thought back to the days of alchemy and armour, back when Roy and Riza were still alive, before they'd gone to join Hughes in the graveyard. Before he had taken years off of his lifespan to make sure his promise was kept. That was how Edward knew he was to die soon, too. The transmutation he'd cast on himself, he was reaching his time because he didn't want to make Winry cry.

_'And now she's going to, anyway.'_

That was all 70 years ago. It's funny how six years of your life can impact everything from then onwards. Recently, there have been days when neither of the Elrics thought about their teenaged lives and what almost was, but that was only recently.

Last year, they even forgot to visit their mother's grave on the 3rd of October, and only realised their mistake a month later.

"Winry, I think I need a check-up on my leg, it's looking rusted." Edward said, sighing. He needed a lot of maintenance lately (more than he had even back when he was breaking it every other day), and Winry had started to get weaker with every job.

To make it easier on his wife, Ed had _tried _to have one of her apprentices give him a check-up, but none of them quite understood the fine craftsmanship of Winry's automail completely, yet, so only Winry herself could work on it.

Ed poked his wife on the shoulder, gently, "Winry? Wake up, Winry." He sat for a good ten minutes, trying to bring Winry back from her slumber.

There was no response.

Edward quickly rose from his bed and rushed to the phone, tapping in the work number of his youngest daughter, before bringing the phone to his ear and waiting.

A kind voice answered to phone "Hello, you've reached the Central Hospital, what's your emergency?"

Ed raised an eyebrow, his memory trying to keep up with him, _'Oh yes, Central, we moved here a year ago, when Roy-'_ Ed choked. He couldn't think it, the once-lively young Colonel, the former Fuhrer of Amestris. Now dead.

"My wife, she's not waking up... can I talk to Dr Mustang?" Ed almost smiled, his daughter had married the son of the man he once despised (or at least, pretended to).

"Of course, sir, may I ask who's calling?"

"Edward Elric."

There was a short gasp on the phone line, as if the caller remembered his name (but no one remembered his name, it was 70 years ago), and then the soft hold music started.

Edward waited for five minutes, growing more anxious by the second, when finally, a familiar voice spoke, "Dad...?"

"Jessica, please come home, your mother's... she's not waking up and I can't get her to move." Ed swallowed his fear well, he sounded quite confident during most of that sentence.

"I'll be there right away. Make yourself some tea and call Uncle Al over, he'll be able to calm you down. Love you."

The phone went dead, and Ed did as his daughter asked. Alphonse arrived five minutes before Jessica did and the brothers had sat in a calm, comfortable silence.

When the shiny white ambulance pulled up (Edward was expecting his daughter to come alone, for some reason), the brothers stood. Jessica ran into the house first while her coworkers readied some equipment to bring into the bedroom.

Edward was locked out of the room, of course (He was always useless when something medical was involved), and he and Al sat in anticipation.

Jessica came out of the room first, half an hour later, "I'm sorry, dad... it's... she's already gone. We can take her back to the hospital and do as much as we can, but there's a very slim chance that she'll make it."

Edward lifted his chin, "We have to try, no matter what. Winry would've done the same."

Jessica smiled at her father's courage before returning to the room, telling the other doctors of her father's request.

* * *

Three hours later, the whole Elric family was gathered, sitting in silence and holding each other's hands. The news had come, Winry was never going to wake up again.

Alphonse was the first to cry, Edward was too afraid to. He felt like this was making up for those times so long ago, when she had to stop herself from crying about him. But soon enough, Alphonse, Mei, their daughter, Ed and Winry's children and _their_ children were all in tears and Edward couldn't help but join in.

The funeral was small, it would've been larger had most of their friends not died already. They had to go all the way to Resembool again to bury Winry near her parent's grave (She was located halfway between her parents and Ed's parents, so that Ed could be buried next to her when he died). It was strange, the journey seemed to pass so quickly when they were young, but this trip took what felt like months.

One by one, the friends and family of Winry started to head back home, leaving only Edward and his brother at the grave.

Alphonse looked over to Ed, studying his face, "Come on, brother, let's go home. I'm cold and hungry and if we stay out here any longer, we'll be joining Winry."

Ed gasped, remembering something that happened so long ago, it shouldn't have been remembered, _Al's voice, small and scared, speaking up to a six-year-old Edward, "I'm cold... and hungry... what are we supposed to do now?"_

Ed sighed, he shouldn't consider _that_, he can't even perform it without his alchemy. The old man turned to his younger brother, his best friend, and nodded, "We're staying at your place tonight, okay? I can't cook for the life of me and I really feel like having some of Mei's strange Xingese food for dinner."

Al nodded, putting a hand on his brother's shoulder, "Come on, brother. We must keep walking forwards. As long as we have each other. That rule has never left us, after all these years."

* * *

_"We must keep walking forwards. As long as we have each other..."_

Edward buried his face into his hands and screamed.

_HE_ was meant to die first, not only was he older, but he'd taken _years_ off of his life.

This shouldn't be happening...

This couldn't...

Alphonse...

Ed reached forward, running an old, wrinkly hand over the new stone.

_"We're all we have left now, Al"_

_"My brother used alchemy to save my life, to regret the form I have now would not only be rejecting alchemy, but turning my back on him. I believe in my brother..."_

_"We're in this together, all the way. Don't forget that, we're gonna keep pushing forward..."_

_"... Keep moving... brother"_

"NO!" Ed cried, "I can't, Al! I can't keep moving. I'm sorry. I have nothing left, Winry's gone, you're gone. Even the Fuhrer and Hawkeye... I'm alone. It's what I deserved all along, Al... but don't worry. I know it, I'll be joining you soon."

Ed stood up and looked between the two tombstones, there was a space between Winry and Al's, with enough space to fit a third person. Enough space to fit Ed.

"I'll keep living till then, Al, but you know I can't move forward, not properly. One of my legs is shabby." Ed chuckled, "But I'll try nonetheless, brother. So that I can be as wise as possible when I finally join you."

The sun was setting. It was hot and frustrating and it made Ed's tears sticky. The ex-alchemist looked to the entrance of the graveyard and saw an old woman standing there, her white Xingese funeral clothes had stood out amongst the black, but that was okay, because her traditions had made her that much more perfect in Al's standards. And if Al liked it, then Ed would chin up and go with it.

Ed joined the woman, nodding in greeting, "I though you'd left with Nina."

"She went home by herself, said she wanted to be alone." There a was long silence between the two, before the woman spoke again, "I know you feel alone, but you're not the only one, Edward. My older brother and his wife are dead and so is Xiao-Mei, but I've still got Nina, and you have your children. Look to them, Edward, because they're worth living for. Every single one of them."

Ed smiled at his sister-in-law, before hugging her, "We'll be joining them soon, Mei."

"I know, Edward, but until then, we are alive. And we should act like it."

"You're cooking me dinner, you know." Ed said, laughing.

"I realised, I've been doing so for two years, since Winr-" Mei sobbed. Winry was like a sister to her, despite the princess not getting along with her when they first met (Mainly because that was one giant misunderstanding).

"Come on then, princess. That food isn't going to cook itself."

"Shut up, beansprout."

The two laughed for the first time in ages, moving forwards slowly, but together.

* * *

**Yay! Character deaths!**

**Yes, I have a headcanon that Edward's like an older brother to Mei even though they constantly tease each other.**

**Yes, Ling and Lan Fan died by the time Al did.**

**Yes, Edward is 87, and will be dying next year, according to one of Arakawa's pictures.**

**Yes, Mei is left by herself for five years before she dies.**

**Yes, I'm a horrible person.**

**Please review?**


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